Sep 8, 2012 10:41 PM

Just thought that there might be some interesting and amusing tales from this question.

I was bitten by a caterpillar once! One of the large hairy kinds. It was walking across my hand and apparently decided to stop for a snack. There was a slight picking sensation and, probably realising I was not a leaf, the creature carried on walking. There was a tiny red mark on the palm of my hand for weeks afterwards.

Not very exciting... I was in a national park in Africa where three lion cubs had been taken care of as their mother had died. One of them took a bite at my leg - but "luckily" mainly caught my trousers. It was just a little larger than an ordinary domestic cat. But - it still counts! I have survived an attack of a lion - I'm one of the lucky few!

Re "Evolving into a new species", speciation is not the same as, and cannot lead to, evolution. That is: a caterpillar/moth cannot evolve into enything more than another species of caterpillar/moth. There is no evidence that caterpillars and cats, for example, could have had a common ancestor.

Was bitten by a tiny (2mm) snail once. Had it on my palm like you did with your caterpillar, and the snail started rasping the skin -- it actually drew a spot of blood lol.

Also, was bitten on the ankle by an English bull terrier once, and seized on the right thumb by a massive mud crab (although the former isn't exactly unusual, and the latter, strictly speaking, wasn't a bite). Both dog and crab also drew blood.

Not me but my now ex-wife. I was peacefully reading when I heard her screaming coming from the bathroom. I hastened up stairs to find her in some pain clutching her hand which showed two distinct puncture marks on the palm below her thumb. She'd picked her towel up off the floor as she went to get out of the bath, felt the bite and saw a spider attached to her hand. She shook her hand and flung the spider away. In as little as 30 seconds the wound site was quite inflamed. She described the pain as worse than a wasp sting. I managed to find the spider alive and apparently unharmed. I then found a piece of software from a university website that helped me id it. Unfortunately, I have lost this in the 10 years since but I well remember feeling very pleased with myself identifying Scotophaeus Blackwalli The Mouse Spider. I very much like spiders so she was quickly released before any revenge could be sought.